Giacomo Shan
Studying Chinese culture and its various artistic expressions, inevitably I came across Tapian printing technique.
I was almost immediately fascinated by this technique. On one hand for its practicality and versatility, and on the other hand for the beauty of its results.
Initially I dedicated myself to this practice following the traditional styles and subjects, to print steles and various types of bas-reliefs from the traditional cultural and archaeological heritage. With this approach, I was able to know and touch works belonging to the Chinese cultural heritage. So in a certain way I used this technique with accordance to its original purpose, that is, of reproduction, cataloging, diffusion and in my case also for knowledge. The printing act, it should be noted that it is only through contact, does one enter into a close relationship with the subject, establishing a personal relationship in a process of cultural appropriation in which the final result is not just a copy.
In fact, I think that the essence of the subject remains on paper in some way; that this leaves an imprint that goes far beyond its shape. The veins, the incisions and the reliefs remain physically imprinted on the sheet.
Another peculiar feature of this technique is the ability to print three-dimensional subjects. This practice has developed in particular in the field of printing bronze artifacts, three-dimensional objects to be precise.
The technique consists of printing the subject in portions and positioning them so that on paper they follow the rules of the representation of solid geometry to some extent, so there is some manipulation of the subject by the printer, who bends it to his will.
To make the three-dimensional effect even more convincing, the ink can be applied following the rules of chiaroscuro, in order to reproduce the subject’s volumes.
Therefore, this printing technique is not a passive act at all, but instead requires careful reflection on the subject you want to represent and how you want to represent it.
When I reached this awareness I was definitively struck by the possibilities of Tapian which from a “simple” artistic technique, showed me the nature of its Art, and the possibility of opening innovative conceptual horizons in the encounter between paper and the object to be printed out.
From there on, I started on a path that led me to use the Tapian also on subjects that are outside the traditional sphere.
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​Another aspect that I immediately considered exceptional is that this technique has the intrinsic potential to make the subject’s pattern more visible and clear: more than what a high-resolution photograph would be able to do, or simply the view of the observer (for this reason it is still used in contemporary times to catalog finds, art objects, etc.). This happens because basically the print is based on the contrast between whites and blacks, empty and full, space and matter, so that what has been engraved or more generally that void (absence of matter) that creates the shape of the subject and of its pattern, on the print it is expressed precisely as white, as absence (of ink) while, what it is, the material, is expressed through the black of the ink giving life to a perfect mimicry of presences and absences, empty spaces and occupied spaces, black and white, ink and paper.
In this way, many elements of the printed subject that may not be so noticeable or almost invisible to the naked eye if not through meticulous and careful observation, suddenly becomes very clear and highly visible.
So with this awareness, when I re-observed the surrounding world, not that of archeology or culture in general, but that of everyday life, I saw the same daily things that went unnoticed before in a new light.
Indeed, a whole series of elements that were already present in the world around me appeared before my eyes as if for the first time, despite having always been there in front of me. Many things were no longer anonymous objects with pure material functions, but they shone with a new beauty and at the same time the need arose in me to reproduce it and spread it precisely using the Tapian technique.